Maine is the end of the road, in more ways than one. US Route 1 starts in Key West and finishes at Fort Kent, on the Canadian border. The Appalachian Trail ends on Mount Katahdin. And the easternmost point of the lower 48 sits at West Quoddy Head, where the lighthouse is painted in red and white stripes.
Route 1 up the coast
The classic drive heads north on Route 1 from Kittery. Here’s where the deck lines up with the road:
- Cape Elizabeth, just south of Portland: Portland Head Light, first lit in 1791 and one of the best-known lighthouses in New England. Ask the question as you pull into the park.
- Freeport to Bath: a good stretch for the state symbols questions (the chickadee, the white pine, the Maine coon cat).
- Bar Harbor: gateway to Acadia and Cadillac Mountain.
- Lubec: West Quoddy Head, the easternmost point.
Plan on going slowly. Route 1 on the coast passes through town after town, and summer traffic is part of the trip.
The moose watch
Maine has plenty of moose, and the yellow “moose crossing” signs are there for a reason. Moose are most active around dawn and dusk and are hard to see in headlights. Turn it into a game on inland roads: the first person to spot a moose sign gets to answer the next question alone, and a real moose ends the round with everyone cheering.
The one-neighbor game
Maine touches only one other state, New Hampshire. That makes a good bonus challenge after the border question: can anyone name another state with just one neighbor? (There isn’t one in the lower 48. Alaska and Hawaii don’t count, since Alaska borders only Canada and Hawaii borders nothing.)
Three Maine facts that aren’t in the deck
- Pemaquid Point Lighthouse appears on the Maine state quarter from 2003.
- Stephen King was born in Portland. Many of his stories are set in made-up Maine towns.
- The honeybee is Maine’s state insect.